iRex's Large E-Reader Aimed at Business Crowd

The iRex Reader 1000 offers a 10.2-inch diagonal E-Ink screen, far larger than Kindle’s 6-inch screen or even iRex’s own 8.1-inch diagonal iLiad, its last e-book model. That stretched display is designed to work with any file format, be it an e-book, a full-sized PDF, a Word document or HTML. Like earlier iRex devices, it sports a stylus and touch screen for taking notes and marking documents.

A basic Reader 1000 with no Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity and a read-only screen costs $650. The fully-equipped edition goes for $850.

By the way iRex has deep roots in Philips. Back in September 2001 Philips assigned a group of specialists to organize iRex group with the main goal – to develop the first commercial Electronic Paper Display to the world. First ebook readers from them were with Philips company logo.

bowerbird

> Back in September 2001 Philips assigned a group of
> specialists to organize iRex group with the main goal –
> to develop the first commercial Electronic Paper Display

and every year since, like the swallows returning to capistrano,
a flock of press releases is issued which earnestly reports that
the goal will come to fruition “in the next year”, depending on
whether or not “the next round of funding” can be obtained…

e-ink seems to have been a big ponzi scheme from the outset,
and will certainly never be inexpensive, simply because it has
collected far too many investors who now need to be paid back.

it’s good to see that some things never change…

but i can’t help but think that if the world had known, back in
2001, that e-ink would still be a not-good-yet technology in
_2009_, we would have turned to some other methods instead,
and saved ourselves a whole lot of the wait-and-wait-and-wait
misery we’ve experienced as we waited and waited and waited
for e-ink to deliver on the promises that it always promised us.

waiting for e-ink has been like waiting for godot, and if there
is _any_ one thing that has stalled e-books, it has been delays
caused by our stupidity in always believing the e-ink hype…
(and the idiot’s teleblawg breathlessly reported every bit of it.)

but hey, if you know any investors who have money to waste,
send ’em over to the readius people, ok? because there is
no better way to waste your money than to invest in e-ink…

-bowerbird

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